Zoloft side effects in elderly

Common Questions and Answers about Zoloft side effects in elderly

zoloft

I am on depakote 500mg twice a day and respidal 4mg at night and 50mg of zoloft and so far I havent had any side affects but its only been a week my side affects show up on weeks 3 & 4 so hopefully I dont but fingers are crossed

Hi, I was on Zoloft 100mg for 14 years and it worked good.New doctor changes me to Paxil without a taper. Six weeks into the change I became very ill. I ended up with some vison loss and neurological and brain damage. I am very self eduacated on these two drugs as I have done nothing but research them for the past two years. No they are not suposed to be taken togehter and infact ther is a contridiction that they are not to be taken together.

First of all, is the doctor a geriatric psychiatrist? I'm guessing not, as Pristiq isn't for anxiety, it's a stimulating antidepressant. It's also very hard to stop taking. When it works for anxiety it's usually because the cause is depression -- this class of drugs targets norepinephrine as well as serotonin, and the former is basically adrenaline. So I wouldn't do anything this particular doctor recommends, I'd get a good psychiatrist who specializes in geriatric medicine.

She very thin and frail and her memory has decreased rapidly in a few weeks. She suffers from depression, and is (without meds) obsessive-compulsive. Without meds she had a horrible temper and would argue about every little thing. Extremely stubborn and independent. Now she is in a nursing home after numerous falls, and never adjusted until a psychiatrist was brought in last year. She was on Effexor, and he discontinued that and started her on Risperdal 3 days ago .25mg.

i take prozac and had NO sideeffects at all and gradually felt better. i was told that Zoloft was the best and tried it after 2 months of night sweats, insomnia and speed like effects i did some research and was suprised at how much more side effects zoloft has compared to other ssris.
get off of it now and try another ssri, dont put up with tremors and dont mask the side effects with xanax. that is my personal opinion.

Hi everyone, was wondering if anyone knew if one of the sideeffects of Zoloft was extreme confusion.
My 90 year old grandmother has been taking it for about 3 or 4 months.
She is now tapping or pounding herself in between her eyes with her fingertips over and over again saying that something is wrong with her head and she feels like she has no idea where she is for a few moments. She then looks up and just shakes her head and says something is wrong with her.

It is a complete mess and I have no idea when the end is in sight. Her doctor had her on 150 a day (75mg in the morning and 75 in the evening). Two weeks ago she dropped to 75 mg in the morning for one week. Then she had me drop that to 37.5 mg per day and that lasted two days. She stopped taking it completely after only two days because she was so sick. She is still very very ill. The doctor started her on Lithium at the same time we were weening her.

Now I am on Geodon which is helping but I am trying other stuff with it and now I'm in the land of sideeffects. For me it loos like a mild form of schizophrenia (not really actual schizophrenia because I'm aware of it, to an extent) and/or (if possible) a rapid cycling mood disorder. It is still confusing and I hope that you figure it out....try reading about schizophrenia while you're at it.

The thinking, which sounds logical to me, is that opiates replace the brain's natural endorphins and the brain stops making them in favor of the opiates. You stop taking the opiates and there's no endorphins waiting in the wings to step in and make you feel OK. So you feel like **** instead. The Lysine is what your brain needs to make more endorphins and other neurotransmitters; the B6 is a catalyst in that process.

I actually feel a crackly throat the next day like I really had smoke in my room. I had a loser family living on the other side who had a grow up going on in the house. That is a totally different smell all together. This is definitely coming from me.

old and the veins of elderly person. There is some plague in the veins on one side of the brain and older looking blood vessels on the other side of my brain for the age of 50. No determination on why nor where these (mini strokes) are originating from. Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN. is my next stop for hope of finding out where these T.I.A.'s (mini strokes) are coming from and what can be done if anything to stop them.

I tried to remove one with tweezers, and it was very tacky (as in sticky) and clearly goes deep under the skin. Part of it broke off but I could still see that the pore was plugged and a day or two later top of the plug was sticking out again. i can't find ANYTHING online that looks like it.

Other anti depressants such as Zoloft, Remeron and Paxil seem to be effective inelderly patients with depression. Remeron seems to be the most commonly used drug in elderly patients with depression and weight loss. I would recommend that she talk to her doctor about other available options.
Sincerely
HFHS-M.D.

Some of the things you will read is scary stuff, but keep in mind that the majority of the sideeffects that you will read about occurred in people who were in poor health to begin with, often elderly patients. There is no way to determine whether the drug brought on the side effect or contributed to it in any way - the only thing that is certain is that the patient was taking the medication when the effect happened.
Amitriptyline is a very good medication for pain.

That doesn't mean at all its the wrong medication generally. Its just it has a fair amount of sideeffects for some people. But as anti-Parkinsonian medications can cause depression and other personality alterations that might be the one. I''d say best to relocate your question to the neurology forum as unless she had depression beforehand, because if it came from Alzheimer's and its neurological in origin the treatment will be very different.

Am I willing to put up with unpleasant sideeffectsin return for anxiety relief?
What non-drug treatments for anxiety might help?
Do I have the time and am I willing to pursue non-drug treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy?
What self-help strategies might help me get my anxiety under control?
If I decide to take anxiety medication, should I pursue other therapy as well?
Questions to ask your doctor
How will the medication help my anxiety?
What are the drug’s common side effects?

He requested Nortriptyline from his current psychiatrist who refused to give it to him stating some sideeffectsinelderly individuals and also told him it usually takes 4-6 weeks for an antidepressant to take effect. I personally dont agree with this and think he should change psychiatrists because it seems illogical to not place him on a medication he was previously seen to be very responsive to.

Though more studies are needed, it is wise for anyone with a history of precancerous or cancerous skin lesions -- such as squamous cell, basal cell skin cancer, or melanoma -- to refrain from taking this herb.
SideEffectsSideeffects are rare but may include skin allergy and burning sensations (with external use), headache, stomach upset, nausea, dizziness, and extreme drowsiness. These side effects tend to occur with high doses of gotu kola.

Needless to say the 4 a day didnt cut it and I was out of all my meds in less then 2 weeks of a 28 day refill.Called him in a panic as withdrwal was really setting in and the back pain went from a 10 to off the charts.By the time my wife got me to his office I was out of my mind in pain and cravings.He took one look at me and sent me to a detox.I was put on Suboxone and it really helped with the first days of the withdrawal,by day 4 I started to feel human again.

My father has been on it since 1990 and takes cymbalta,zoloft for the depression sideeffects and just is OUT of it alot. He will sit down and just fall asleep. he falls asleep while eating dinner and even standing up talking he dozes off. I know alot of it is the meds make him tired and (he's 64) just normal aging, but, what are the symptoms of drug enduced dementia?
He also like... hallucinates.....

said she was on it too long ,and put her on Prozak first then Zoloft ,,and shortly after that she had to go in the hospitol she was in hell ! Horrible thoughts of suacide, terrible depression ,,all of it.. All of a suden she supposedly has Anxiety disorder ..so now she is on klonapin,cymbalta,remeron ,ambien,xanax,and darvon , and is not getting any better!!!! ,My question is.... Do you think the stopping of the Elavil caused this traumatic experience ?

I really don't know if meds will change his personality but they could leave unwanted side-effects. This is more just a general gripe, but is seems to me the med industry likes to push meds for just about anything.
As far as meds and children go, it's a contraversial debate. Some people believe that it will cause perminant changes because children's brains are still forming. Whether they are right, I don't know. I'm just suspcious in general about certain meds.

Well that lead to a discussion about how doctors are fleecing America
From Medco Drug Trends Report 2008, May 2008 (data from 2007)
Percent of prescriptions filled with brand name drugs declined from 45.9% in 2003 to 30.6% in
May 2008.

Elderly Mom on Zoloft and Risperdal
by Tinkerbell920, 4 minutes ago
My mom is 93 years old and about 95 pounds. She very thin and frail and her memory has decreased rapidly in a few weeks. She suffers from depression, and is (without meds) obsessive-compulsive. Without meds she had a horrible temper and would argue about every little thing. Extremely stubborn and independent. Now she is in a nursing home after numerous falls, and never adjusted until a psychiatrist was brought in last year.

My shrink is medically solid and aware of the potential effects these drugs can have on the heart, so he prescribes with my condition in mind. While cardiac effects are listed as possible for many of the SSRIs (and other mood-altering drugs), I haven't had any.
In fact, I can tell you that this approach has been pretty much the magic bullet for me.

caution must be exercised especially in the elderly, since sideeffects of these drugs are not rare. About 65% of patients respond to the medication with a complete remission, although many others derive some lesser benefit.

It was orginally manufactured for the elderly and because the sideeffects are so mild compared to other meds, doctors started recommending it to others. Like I say, I am pregnant and I am taking it. My ob/gyn and my perinatologist both feel that the baby will be fine and I am not taking a large risk. Have you worked on self talk? Counting back from 10, talking yourself out of the attack?

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